We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for October 2025 has been chosen. Congratulations to Ahmed Dakroury with his photo "Surfacing".
Ahmed wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the October participants here.
If you would like a chance to win, simply register on our website and upload your photos from our competition page. Each day we choose a 'photo of the day' from the selection of entries. Anyone can register on our website and vote on photos entered into the competition. At the end of the month our Photo Pro and photography workshop leader, Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield, looks at the votes and chooses a winner from the highest scoring photos. Full terms and conditions and prize details are available here.
Congratulations again to Ahmed, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
Like last month I’ve narrowed things down to a final three that stood out literally head and shoulders above the rest. Again simple common creatures but displayed in solidly creative ways.
They’re also examples of why you need to keep entering this competition as perseverance will pay out in the end and whilst I see names cropping up again and again, some previous winners too, if you pay heed to what is written and the great examples of the winning shots chosen you’ll get there in the end.
Ryan (Stalker's) elegantly simple, but tricky to pull off shot of a Hawkfish is marked up by the attention to detail that winners usually observe. Hawkfish are difficult to approach, they're super skittish and so you need good in water technique, slow movement and a good idea of what you want to achieve beforehand is vital. This shot centrally composed which works brilliantly for head on portraits, draws your eyes in to be met with the eyes of the creature looking straight down the barrel of the lens. Also Ryan has employed a relatively wide aperture so that only the eyes and the parallel surroundings are rendered in focus. Patience again is also what you need in large amounts, as these aforementioned flighty fish will let you get all framed and lined up only to dart off a moment before you press the shutter.
What I do is I get my lighting, desired aperture and rough focus prepared before on a patch of coral without the fish, and then slowly slowly creep closer taking shots until the creature finally darts away. I then check focus in camera by reviewing the shot and zooming in on my attempts, and if it’s not right I go back and try again, luckily Hawkfish are plentiful, and you’ll get another go, and all this practice makes you lucky for the future, when you may only get one attempt with a less common creature, but checking your results in camera closely will mean that you’ll not find out that the shot that you thought was fine, disappoints when you've got it up on your laptop screen after the dive.
Gennady (Elfimov) wide angle portrait of a turtle is set apart from the many pictures of turtles that I see from Shagra, Nakari and the locale in the pose that it’s adopting raising it’s head, and appearing to appraise the large clumsy beast taking it’s picture, I hope Gennady will laugh at that description as it’s not directed at him personally but all of us divers and how we must appear to the marine life we encounter down there, I imagine dolphins must think we’re hilarious as compared to them we must look so ungainly and inelegant, particularly a big chap like me! Back to the picture though and my thought process came about because Gennady's shot whilst not marked by fancy technique, is a solid contender because it’s full of personality as he’s caught the turtle doing something that almost gives it anthropomorphic qualities. Which is important in underwater photography, which may not be scientifically correct, I mean how can we know if the turtle is judging Gennady, but at least to this viewer the creature is given a personality by virtue of it’s pose, and his capturing of it. And this is the sort of picture that resonates with our non diving viewers a lot.
My final choice by another previous winner Ahmed (Dakroury) is also a turtle picture this time marked out less by personality on show but by clever technique and timing. Unsurprisingly being aquatic reptiles, turtles are really good at free diving and holding their breath, and when resting and sleeping can stay under for hours, but just like us they have a set of lungs and need to pop up to take a breath periodically especially if they’re active. They rarely stay up on the surface for too long though so getting a split shot like this great example by Ahmed needs quick thinking, technique, and a dose of luck. You need luck as unlike the turtle, a diver breathing compressed air with your physiology and the physics involved can’t just pop up and back down like the turtle can, if on scuba, as it’s dangerous. So you need at the very least to be within a metre or two of the surface or ideally on the surface, before or after a dive or better still whilst snorkelling. Some divers look down on snorkelling sadly but as an underwater photographer I find it a vital skill to develop and I’m often on snorkel only trips so of late I’ve found a new found love of breath hold diving as a very good way to get shots with the freedom afforded just not possible with scuba kit on. Split shot’s if you know me are a particular favourite of mine, but it’s not enough to just take any old split or half half picture, you also need to have both halves of the shot to have some interesting feature, in this case it's the turtles head itself as the shooter is so close to the subject you can see it’s eyes, and it’s nostrils just breaking the surface and it’s reptilain beak just below. Technically you’ve got to have all your ducks, or should we say turtles in a row as exposure and focus is important for a successful end result.
Again this month all three front runners were very close calls, but in the end after a lot of deliberation and coffee I’ve opted to go for Ahmeds split shot, although I cant deny that the other two caused me a lot of going back and forward trying to make a final decision.
Ok, all three of our choices this month have won this competition before, but this is for a very important reason. They entered, and in most cases they’d entered many times previously before a win, so their perseverance was a huge factor in their success. I see a lot of names enter a lot and reach the final ten, only to just miss out, but don’t be disheartened, there is often a progression that I observe in those that keep on trying, and they get there in the end as I see that they slowly raise their game and keep going. So keep entering, keep trying, and see what shots are winning and why maybe your’s missed out.
It’s often really basic stuff like misfocus or a bad edit, or no editing at all. You don’t and shouldn’t need to do a lot of editing, but most winning shots are usually edited a little, removing backscatter etc. Sometimes people just put pictures of charismatic creatures like Oceanic White Tips, Dolphins, or Turtles in hope that they’ll succeed on charisma alone but they also need to have a little extra making them stand out. And this X Factor is usually a combination of great technique, lighting either natural light or strobe, and above all great composition and a shot with some injected personality and style. This rarely comes without practice, and that word again perseverance, and maybe a bit of luck along the way, but practice and perseverance makes you lucky.
Well done to everyone else, keep up the good work and keep sending those entries in, and maybe you’d like to join our Fotofest next year in June? This workshop is designed for camera users of all experience levels, with any type of underwater camera.
